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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL. 



or prior to, 1835, and stood in the middle 

 of the village. It represented the best 

 type of Tlingit architecture, a broad low 

 structure of heavy hewn spruce timbers, 

 with noticeably high corner posts, that 

 gave it a degree of character wholly 

 wanting in the larger houses of the Van- 

 couver Island people. It faced the river 

 with a frontage of forty-nine feet ten 

 inches and a depth of fifty-three feet — 

 approximately the proportions of Tlingit 

 houses large and small. Each of these 

 old houses formed a solid 

 structure, the frame and 

 planking supporting each 

 other without the use of 

 spikes. The doorway, 



which was the only open- 

 ing in the walls, was ap- 

 proiached by two steps, 

 more than three feet above 

 the ground. It was narrow 

 and low as a defensive 

 measure, so that but one 

 could enter at a time, and 

 then only in a stooping 

 posture equally impossible 

 for attack or defense. The 

 roof covering consisted of 

 a confusion of overlapping 

 spruce boards and slabs of 

 bark, held down originally 

 by smaller tree trunks ex- 

 tending the depth of the 

 structure and kept in place 

 by heavy boulders at the ends. The 

 smoke hole in the center of the roof, 

 which both lighted and ventilated the 

 interior, had been protected by a mov- 

 able shutter balanced on a cross bar 

 resting on two supports so that it 

 could be shifted to either side as de- 

 sired. 



The interior formed an excavation 

 four feet nine inches below the ground 

 level, with two receding steplike plat- 

 forms. The lower square floor space, 



twent3'-six feet by twenty-six feet nine 

 inches, constituted the general living and 

 working room common to all, except 

 that portion in the rear and opposite 

 the entrance, which was reserved for the 

 use of the house chief, his immediate 

 family, and most distinguished guests. 

 This was the place of honor in all Tlingit 

 houses upon all occasions, ceremonial or 

 otherwise. The flooring, of heavy, split,, 

 smoothed planks of varying widths, ex- 

 tended around a central gra^'eled fire- 



Old house in Klukwan on the Chilkat River. Kiukwan was the 

 most important of the Chilkat villages and retained its character long- 

 after those farther south had fallen into decay 



place six feet by six feet and a half^ 

 where all of the cooking was done over 

 a wood fire which also heated the house 

 in winter. In front of and a little to 

 the right of the fire space, was a small 

 cellar-like apartment entered by a small 

 trap door in the floor barely large enough 

 to admit a person. This was used as a 

 steam bath, by heating boulders in the 

 fire, dropping them on the floor below 

 with split wood tongs, and pouring 

 water upon them to generate vapor — 



